Report Reveals A Mess Northampton County Sheriff's Office Faulted

May 23, 1993|by JACK KRAFT, The Morning Call

County Councilman Ladd Siftar Jr., who runs a title search company, began receiving complaints about the sheriff's real estate account, which is used to pay off lien and mortgage holders due money from sheriff's sales. Siftar brought his concerns to the controller in September.

Diomedo was drowning by this time. After his real estate deputy took maternity leave, the account balance ballooned to more than three times its normal $250,000. Employees in the office were not cross-trained to handle each other's duties.

Diomedo turned to Lehigh County Sheriff Ronald Rossi for help, and Rossi sent three people to Easton for a day. Rossi would not divulge what they found.

Seyfried began hearing the same complaints that Siftar did, but he didn't immediately press the controller to finish her long-delayed audit.

Seyfried said the administration decided after budget adoption in December to make changes in the sheriff's office. He said, "Maybe that's one of the reasons we didn't push so hard for her to finish the audit."

When the problems didn't go away, the administration informally asked the controller to resume her audit. Seyfried said, "She was short on staff and it wasn't one of her priorities at the time."

Lewis picked up the work last month after council issued a formal request. A final report, with recommendations for improvement, is expected next month.